Last Sunday, Erelu Abiola Dosunmu celebrated her 62nd birthday with the launch of an exclusive club, The Beach Centre located at her high rise house on Tiamiyu Savage street,Victoria Island, Lagos.

When women of substance gathered in Lagos recently at thisyear’s Women of Global Impact Conference 2009, it was in response to a call to make a difference in the lives of poor women and children in Nigeria.

Adolescence in Lagos in the 1980s was filled with the usual peer pressures. Drinking, smoking and the promotion of recreational drug use was very popular and the cool things to do. Lucky for me, my dear mother was a force to be reckoned with and quickly diverted my attention to a Shotokan karate club. In the beginning, I was not happy about this extracurricular activity but I learned to appreciate it. Consequently, my exercise habits were born.

Mother Theresa once said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” Isn’t that the truth? When we get caught up in frustration, disappointment and anger with others for the way they treat us, we have very little energy left to love.

Two interesting stories recently popped up in the British press which showed how pathetic some women would get to “pull” a stud, Jane Ngarmdji, a 58 year-old Briton told of how she was ‘swept off her feet’ by the Nigerian man she met in a Gambian club.